


The Dead Aren't Good Company

by RosyPages



Category: The Umbrella Academy (Comics), The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Ben is alive, Brotherly Bonding, But his brothers save him though, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, Family Feels, Hurt Klaus, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus is locked up, Klaus whump, Klaus!whump, Mausoleum, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reginald Hargreeves A+ parenting, Siblings help each other, Sober Klaus, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2019-11-01 12:12:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 14,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17867036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosyPages/pseuds/RosyPages
Summary: They’d been back in time for less than a month when their father forced Klaus back into the mausoleum.But maybe this time his family can do the right thing.





	1. History Repeats Itself

            They’d been back in time for less than a month when their father forced Klaus back into the mausoleum.

            He had been trying (and failing) to summon the dead. He’d done it with Ben, he knew that, but now that Ben was alive again there was no one he could reach for. He could never hope to replicate what they’d done in the theater, especially under the cold and clinical eye of Reginald Hargreeves.

            His guardian hadn’t said a word. He’d just crossed the room in two long strides, snatched Klaus’ wrist, and yanked him out the door so hard he felt his shoulder joint scream under the strain.

            “Dad-”

            “You need to get over this _pathetic_ fear, Number Four,” Hargreeves snarled. “You’re such a disappointment.”

            That was when the cold wave of dread swept over him.

            He knew what those words meant. What horrors usually followed.

            Klaus was dragged out the house. Despite his struggled, Hargreeves kept his grip tight enough to bruise, and he was no match for a skinny thirteen-year-old.

            He’d never regretted getting clean so much before.

            Because he was beginning to remember this trip.

            The last time he’d been thirteen (and wasn’t that a trippy thought) and his dad had lost his temper with him, he’d been locked in the mausoleum for two days. It’d been the first time he’d been stuck in there while high. It’d been dark and stunk to high heaven. He’d shivered his way through the first night and stopped feeling his fingers during the second. But he’d seen nothing. It’d been quiet.

            This time he didn’t have the luxury of a high to help him through it.

            Klaus started struggling more. This was ridiculous. He was a thirty-year-old man! Kind of. And he’d sworn to himself! He’s sworn to never step foot in that place again.

            Ben had promised him that he wouldn’t have to.

            The mausoleum came into view and Klaus started screaming. He wasn’t sure exactly what he was saying, but words and names were exploding from his mouth and panic seared through his veins because he was _fucking not going back there_.

            Hargreeves only grunted with annoyance and dragged Klaus through the mud and down the stone steps. His knees scraped against the rock as his limbs grew weak and the fight left him under the dark shadows of the crypt.

            Without another word Klaus was thrown to the dead and the door was shut behind him.


	2. Klaus is Missing

It was the smell that got to him first. Dead, rotting bodies don’t smell good no matter how long they’d been shut up in a windowless crypt for. The stench doubled him over and he was left gagging against the dirt floor.

The mausoleum was cold. Bone chillingly cold. The type of cold that sinks into a soul and doesn’t let go. He’d had nightmares about that type of cold long after leaving the mansion. He’d wake up shaking, jaw clenched shut, a scream raw in his throat. No matter how many blankets he’d wrap around his shivering body he could never warm up.

It was smaller than he remembered. The claustrophobia of it has always stuck with him. But in his mind, the mausoleum stretched into the darkness. It consisted of a tight corner of stone and the rest was just voices and gore and horror. Now though…  he didn’t have enough room to even stretch out his arms. The crypt was nothing but a box. Or a cage.

He’s wasn’t supposed to be in here. He’d sworn he’d never go back.

_Klaus._

The whisper was enough to send a fresh wave of panic burning through his insides.

_Klaus. **Klaus.**_

He couldn’t breathe. There wasn’t enough air. His lungs burned.

**_We’ve been waiting for you._ **

“Please, please, let me out.” The whisper sounded pathetic even to his ears; it was nothing but a high-pitched whine scratching at the walls. He couldn’t do this. He was nothing. He was useless.

**_Klaus. Please. Please. Klaus._ **

They were so loud.

There was a flicker of a face suddenly too close. A woman hovered in front of him. Bloody chunks of flesh had been ripped from her cheek. Her eye was half clawed out. Flaps of skin peeled from her bone like paper. He flinched backwards, back slamming hard against the wall. His head hit the stone with a terrifying _thunk_.

For a moment his head swam, and a thousand corpses rose around him.

**_KlausKlausKlaus._ **

A man with brains spilling across over the shards of his leftover skull.

**_Pleasehelpuspleasehelpuspleasehe-_ **

Another clawing at his own face. Another gagging on his own organs slipping from his mouth. Another screamed. Another begged. Another another another…

His chest heaved, lungs burned. There was no air. His nails ripped into his skin. He had to feel something, had to stay grounded. Had to find an anchor.

He wasn’t a child any more. He could do this.

A torso dragged itself across the floor by its elbows. Intestines spilled from where the rest of it’s body had been hacked off. Cold fingers scraped against his shin.

Wait-

**_Klausklausklausklausklaus-_ **

His hands were glowing.

His hands were glowing and the nails clawing at his calf left painful red lines. Bony fingers closed around his throat. He could feel cold breath against his face. A heavy weight against his chest.

They were real. They were real. They were real.

**- _klausklaushelpklauswemissedyouklausklausklaus-_**

“Please. Please. Someone. Let me out!”

 

* * *

 

They were trying to have a meeting. Key word “trying.” Luther had been talking without a break for ten straight minutes now, and Ben was pretty sure the only people actually listening were Allison and Vanya.

            Five was furiously scribbling equations in his notebook and muttering to himself every few seconds. He hadn’t looked up once or acknowledged any of them.

            Diego sat beside Ben, and he could clearly see the knife he was sharpening under the table. He knew from experience that the world could be ending, and Diego would never listen to a word Luther said.

            To his credit, Ben was _trying_ to pay attention. He’d caught a few words such as, “Need to find Howard,” and “Vanya’s pills,” and “training.” But he couldn’t help his gaze floating to the door. Because Klaus was supposed to have been there over fifteen minutes ago.

            Ben still didn’t like leaving Klaus’ side. They hadn’t been separated for years. During the first couple weeks of being back in their childhood home they’d even shared a bed, until Pogo had become too suspicious. If Ben could have it his way, Klaus would never leave his sight. The idea of not having him around made him feel queasy.

            They’d spent over ten years with only each other. That couldn’t be forgotten in less than a month.

            Now they had less than two minutes before dinner was called and his brother was still nowhere to be seen.

            Ben looked back to Luther, “Has anyone seen Klaus?”

            “Klaus?” Their leader (sort of) blinked at him, shocked he’d been interrupted mid-strategizing.

            “He was training with Dad,” Vanya offered, eyes not lifting from the floor.

            “Yeah, I know,” said Ben, “but he should’ve been finished over an hour ago.”

            His siblings looked confused. They clearly hadn’t given Klaus’ disappearance as much thought as he had.

            They clearly hadn’t given it any thought at all.

            A bell clanged from downstairs.

            The others rose, their movements robotic as they clambered out of small backroom they’d been huddled in. Ben followed them automatically.

            They gathered around the table, each taking their place, as they’d done thousands of times before. Before the apocalypse. Before their Dad’s death. Before Ben’s death…

            Even as their father appeared and motioned for them all to sit, Klaus’ place remained empty. There was no meal prepared for him.

            “Where’s Klaus?”

            Hargreeves grunted through a mouthful of potato, “No talking at the table.”

            His siblings eyed him silently. They were willing him to stay quiet. To not aggravate their father. It was the same exact thing they’d done to Number Five before he had disappeared.

            “Where is Klaus?” Ben asked again. He didn’t think he needed to though. He had a pretty good idea on where Hargreeves had put him.

            His dad sighed and put his fork down delicately next to his plate. His movements were deliberate, and his words hard and angry. “Extra training. He needed it.”

            “You put him in the mausoleum, didn’t you?”

            This, at least, prompted an ounce of emotion to flicker across Hargreeves’ face. He hadn’t been expecting that. He didn’t know that Ben knew. Ben _shouldn’t_ know. Klaus had never told him until Ben had shared his head. Until he’d witnessed the breakdowns and the nightmares and the flashbacks…

            He wasn’t going to let that happen again.

            Ben leapt from his chair, sending it flying to the floor. The rest of his siblings jumped. Diego opened his mouth, maybe to stop him, maybe to help him, but Ben was already halfway to the door at a dead run.

            Pogo stopped him in his tracks.

At this age they were practically the same height, but still Ben got the impression of Pogo being very small in front of him. His eyes were sorrowful, sad. He regretted what he had to do. “Please, the master insists that-”

But regrets didn’t save them last time.

“You can’t let him do this, Pogo,” Ben whispered.

Pogo bowed his form as a shadow fell over them. Hargreeves stood beside them, a scowl deeply cut into his face and white-hot anger blazing in his eyes.

“This behaviour is unacceptable, Number Six. You will go to your room this instant, and you will not come out until I deem it necessary. Do you understand?”

The ferocity of the words knocked him back a couple steps and a sudden rush of fear gripped his heart. He’d never been _scared_ of Hargreeves before. He was a cold and clinical monster and an abusive asshole, but even up until his death Ben had never felt like he was truly in danger. Not directly. He was afraid of missions and of his powers and of his training. But Hargreeves had never directly hurt him out of anger or spite.

When Klaus had spoken of Hargreeves’ temper or the fear he’d felt growing up in their house, Ben had never truly understood. Not until this moment.

Then Luther’s hand clamped down on his shoulder and the spell was broken.

“I’ll take him upstairs, Dad,” Number One said as he ushered Ben away. Ben felt enough power under his brother’s hands to know this wasn’t optional. He allowed himself to be guided away, leaving the rest of their family staring after them.

 

* * *

 

As soon as they were out of sight, Ben wrenched himself away.

            “We can’t just leave him, Luther!”

            “Ben-”

            “No, listen to me. When you had your breakdown who followed you into that rave? He would die for you Luther! Literally die. And I told him you’d do the same thing for him, and now you can’t even-”

            “Ben, listen to me,” Luther whispered, “We’re not leaving him. But we can’t go get him now. We’ll wait until everyone’s gone to bed, okay?  We can’t risk getting caught without a-”

            “Plan? Forget your plans!” Ben screamed. It was five o’clock. Hargreeves wouldn’t retire to bed until past midnight. He couldn’t abandon Klaus for over seven hours! “We’ve spent a month here waiting for you to come up with a plan. You know what’s happened? Vanya’s still barely talks to us. Diego still does his loner thing. Five’s always off on his own. And now _Klaus is locked in a mausoleum without us_.”

            Ben stared at Luther, breathless. His brother looked stunned. This was the most he’d spoken… ever. Even before his death he’d always preferred his nose stuck in a book than to engage in the drama the others were always absorbed in.

            Look where that got him… look where that got all of them.

            “None of you understand… we _have_ to rescue Klaus.”

            Luther seemed to pause, taking his words in. “We will,” he said finally, placing his hands-on Ben’s shoulders, “But we have to wait until Dad can’t catch us. Or he’ll catch on to everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience!
> 
> As promised, I made this one longer.
> 
> Thank you for all the lovely comments. I loved them.  
> Please tell me what you think.


	3. Klaus isn't looking good

            It was past one a.m. when Luther and Ben snuck their way out of the mansion. The rest of their siblings were on lookout duty, hidden away through the mansion in case Hargreeves woke up and found them gone. He hadn’t left his office until after midnight, probably expecting Ben to do something much like he was doing now. What Hargeeves wouldn’t expect was the siblings working together. Especially Luther.

            Diego had thrown a fit when Five had told them the plan. But Luther was the only one who could open the mausoleum door. Ben wasn’t particularly thrilled on bringing Luther along either. The last time Luther and Klaus had spent quality time together hadn’t been a particularly fun evening for anyone involved. But he had to admit, Luther did seem pretty worried. The idea of their father going so far for “training” had seemed to rattle him.

            “I didn’t even know we had something like a mausoleum outside our _house_ ,” Luther admitted as they did their best to sneak out of sight across the grass.

            Ben shrugged, “Klaus showed it to me once when we were younger. It was awful. He wouldn’t go near it, but I went inside, and I had nightmares for about a week. He never told me about Dad locking him inside though. Not until…” He trailed off, sure Luther could finish the rest.

            “I still don’t understand though. Why would Dad do this?”

            “Well… Dad _claimed_ that it was for Klaus to get over his fear.”

            Luther stopped mid-step and Ben almost collided with him. “You don’t think that’s the reason?”

            “Honestly? No. You don’t lock a nine-year-old in a crypt expecting him not to be afraid afterwards.”

            “So why then?”

            “Punishment? Pettiness?”

            Luther blinked at him through the darkness, seeming unable to comprehend what Ben was saying. “What? You think Dad just did this… to be… _mean_?”

            Ben rolled his eyes. “If you want to simplify it then yeah. I think Dad wanted to punish Klaus for not taking the Umbrella Academy seriously enough or not listening to him or for just being annoying. And it worked. Come on, let’s go before we’re caught. We’ve been out here too long already.”

            Ben kept walking, not checking behind him to see if Luther was following.

            Luther was still so loyal. Even after the what had happened with Vanya and the whole moon thing. It was like going back in time had erased everything for him.

But it hadn’t erased everything for Ben. He could still remember what it felt like to be torn to pieces by what was inside of him. He could still remember Hargreeves watching, notebook in hand, and doing nothing. He remembered Klaus screaming through the night from nightmares when the alcohol wasn’t enough to knock him out.

Luther might believe that their dad deserved another chance, but Ben was through with second chances.

 

* * *

 

When they reached the mausoleum, it was worse than Ben remembered. Narrow stone steps sloped into the darkness, ending with a wedge of stone stuck in the dirt. No wonder they’d all never noticed it before. It was muddy and slimy, and just imagining what was behind that door was sending shivers up Ben’s spine.

“It literally looks like the gate to hell,” Luther whispered, his eyebrows knitting together. To his credit, there was no hesitation in his step as he approached the door and took it with both hands. “Ready?”

Ben nodded and Luther opened the door.

At first, he couldn’t see anything but darkness. Even with the moonlight flooding in, he couldn’t make out any movement between the graves and stone.

“Klaus?” Ben called in a hoarse whisper, forcing himself down the steps and through the entrance way. Luther hovered behind him, obviously reluctant to enter. There was nothing though. Cobwebs and graves and stone. The stench was enough to take his eyes water and the cold took his breath away. But there was no Klaus.

Then Ben saw him.

Klaus was prone on the floor, lying on his side, half hidden in the shadows. His eyes were vacant, staring at nothing. His breathing was coming out in shallow pants as if he couldn’t find any air. There was blood too. So much blood.

Ben ran to him, his building fear of the dark suddenly lost to his panic.

“Klaus?” he called again. He put his hand to Klaus’ cheek, trying to rouse him. His skin was like ice. “C’mon, we’re getting you out. Can you hear me?”

Klaus remained on the ground, unblinking, unresponsive.

Luther came up behind them and knelt. Ben could see his hands were shaking when he pressed his fingers lightly against Klaus’ pulse. “His heart’s beating way too fast. It’s like he’s in shock or something.”

“Okay… Okay… Let’s just… get him out of here.”

Luther nodded and took Klaus in his arms, easily lifting him off the freezing ground. Ben could feel the bite of frost between his jeans just from the short time he’d been kneeling. He couldn’t imagine how cold Klaus was.

            On the grass under the moonlight, Ben could see Klaus better. He was shivering violently, almost seizing, and his breathing was still coming out ragged and short. His skin was so white he looked almost corpse-like. There was no life in his eyes.

            And the blood… there was a _lot_ of blood. He was covered in what looked like claw marks and bruises and… were those bite marks?

            “What the hell happened?”

            Ben could only shake his head. “We need to get him back home. Now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. I've been a little sick.  
> Also sorry for the weird format. The site just was not cooperating with me.  
> Hopefully you like it!  
> Please remember to comment!


	4. Breakdowns and Arguments

They almost made it up the stairs. Luther’s foot was on the first step, Klaus safe in his arms, and Ben just behind them. Klaus hadn’t changed since Luther had picked him up off the floor of the mausoleum. He was still shivering, eyes roaming wildly, but seeing nothing in front of him. Ben’s stomach lurched at the sight of the blood and the sickly grey of his skin. He didn’t know to fix this.

            “Who is out of bed?” Hargreeves’s voice called through the hall. Ben and Luther froze, deer caught in headlights.

            “Luther, keep going,” Ben hissed loud as he dared.

            “But he knows-”

            “Go. I’ll handle it.”

            Luther hesitated and Ben could see his hero complex roaring in his eyes. But then he looked down at Klaus in his arms and nodded stiffly. With one last look, he disappeared up the stairs and Ben turned to face their dad.

            It didn’t take long for the man to turn the corner. A scowl twisted his face into a grimace, and despite the pajamas, he still had his monocle jammed in his eye.

            “Number Six. Report. What are you doing out of bed?”

            Ben said nothing. He could feel himself gagging on the words but all he could feel was Hargreeves rage from dinner.

            “If this is about Number Four,” Hargreeves continued, “then we need to have words. Follow.”

            His dad turned on his heel and disappeared down the hallway. Ben had no choice but to follow him.

            When they reached the office, Hargreeves took his seat behind his desk, leaving Ben hovering at the doorway, unsure if he was supposed to follow or not.

            “Well?” Hargreeves said, “Enter.”

            Been took a single step inside the room.

            “I assume Number Four told you of his extra training. You will not interfere any more, is that clear? He needs to control his fear, or he will be of no use to me. To anybody.”

            “You’re wrong,” Ben said, unable to stop himself... Why did he say that? _Why did he say that?_ He shouldn’t have spoken. He should have just let Hargreeves rage at him until he settled on a punishment and sent him on his way. He needed to get back to Klaus, not stand here to be screamed at like a child.

            Hargreeves slammed his palms on the desk so hard the wood groaned in protest. “Excuse me?”

            “You’re not helping him.” Ben hated how young he sounded. He hated that he was thirteen. Because even though he was solid and alive again, Klaus was still getting hurt. They weren’t changing anything.

            “Do you not trust me, Number Six?”

            Ben didn’t know how to answer that. He thought of Klaus screaming, tied up in a motel cupboard. He thought of Vanya looking so lost and alone. He thought of Luther on the moon for four years. He thought of Allison and Diego unable to keep their lives on track no matter how hard they tried. He thought of Five, forty-five years lost and alone.

            He remembered his insides tearing his apart as his guardian watched, his expression neutral even as Ben was choking on his own blood. Hargreeves had shown more emotion during dinner than he had watching his son die.

            When Ben didn’t answer, Hargreeves nodded, as if taking his silence as an apology.

            “You will return to bed. And Number Four will be kept for another five hours.” Ben opened his mouth to argue, but Hargreeves glared. “If I catch you again, it’ll be another twelve.”

           

* * *

 

Diego had seen Klaus so high he hadn’t remembered his own name. He’d seen him sobbing like a baby at a picture on a wall. He’d seen him tired to a chair and screaming for drugs. This was worse. This was 1000x worse.

            Luther hadn’t said a word when he’d walked in. He’d just put Klaus on the bed and taken a step back, clearly ready to hand the responsibility to someone else. Five had asked about Ben, but Diego hadn’t paid attention to the answer because Klaus looked so _bad_. His eyes were crazed, flickering around the room, never settling, not seeing anything. He probably didn’t even know where he was. His breath was coming out in short, desperate pants where the air wasn’t getting in. And the blood. There was so much blood. His uniform was ripped to pieces and Diego could see the cuts and claw marks underneath.

            “What the hell happened?” Allison peering at their brother, taking a step closer. No one touched him though. “I thought he was just locked up? He looks…”

            “Enough, if you’re not going to help then leave the room,” Diego said, finally, surprising even himself. He took a step forward, placing his hand gently on Klaus’s shoulder. The boy whimpered, the first sign of awareness. “Klaus, can you hear me?”

            His lips started moving, barely, and Diego had to lean down to hear the whisper of, “They’re real. They’re real. They’rereal. _They’rerealthey’rerealthey’rereal_.”

            “Hey, hey, Klaus, it’s me. We’re here. It’s okay.”

            Diego could hear the air catching in Klaus’s throat, the labored pants becoming quick frantic gasps. Then his eyes were focusing, catching on Diego’s face and holding, widening, filling with panic.

            “It’s okay, Klaus,” Diego crooned as gently as he could manage with his pitchy thirteen-year-old voice. “I’m here. You’re not… not locked up, anymore. You’re safe.”

            If Klaus heard him, he made no show of it. Instead he only seemed to get worse. His breathing broke down into desperate gasps, air clearly not getting through.

            “They’re…real… Diego… _they’re real_.”

            “Klaus, listen, breathe.” Panic welled in Diego’s chest. He didn’t know what to do! He couldn’t help him.

            Then Ben was there. He hadn’t heard him come in, but he was there, on the bed, leaning over Klaus with a look of calm Diego knew he would never mirror.

            “Breathe with me,” Ben said. He took Klaus’s hand and put it to his own chest. Diego watched them breath together. Ben, slow and steady, Klaus desperate and broken. Tears ran down Klaus’s face, but Ben’s gaze never wavered, and his voice was sturdy.

            Finally, when Klaus’s airways seemed to clear, Ben gathered his brother in his arms. Klaus curled up in his lap, fingers knotted in his pajama shirt, sobbing violently. Diego had to look away. He felt like he was intruding on something his shouldn’t.

            He quietly slipped away to join the others in the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the lovely comments!  
> I appreciate them all very much.  
> Love you all <3
> 
> Remember to tell me what you think of this chapter!


	5. Five and Ben put the pieces back together again

Five could sense the argument brewing. His family had never been good with dealing with their emotions. Luther was pacing the hallway, making no attempt at staying quiet. Five was almost tempted to throw something at him just to get him to stop, but he knew that’d be the straw to break the camel’s back.

Allison wasn’t much better. She was glaring at the wall, her hands in tight fists at her side.

Vanya looked the worst though. She was shaking, practically vibrating, arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes were far away and glazed over with tears that were yet to fall. Five could see the memories of her own prison rushing through her mind. He knew he should comfort her. He used to be able to do such things. Comforting Vanya had been the easiest thing in the world when they were twelve and the worst thing to happen was their father passing over her for their portraits.

Simpler times.

The door to Luther’s room popped open and Diego slipped out. Five could tell instantly that he was looking to pick a fight, because that was just what Diego did. Under any other circumstances, he’d let them have at it (them usually being Luther and Diego). He was usually willing to wait for them to tire themselves out before they could calm down enough to listen to actual logic.

However, fighting amongst themselves wasn’t something they could afford at the moment.

“Not a word,” Five ordered before Diego could so much as blink. “Before we sort through this mess, Klaus needs to be taken care of. Has he calmed down at all?”

Diego opened his mouth, but Five glared hard until he closed it and nodded slowly.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He didn’t know much about comforting his siblings, but he could deal with the rest. The rest was logic and order. “He’ll need clothes. And medical attention. I’m going to get some things. The rest of you can stay in my room until I come get you. Not a word to each other. If I so much as hear a whisper, I’m teleporting you to the roof and leaving you there. Understand? Hargreeves might still be awake.”

Surprisingly, they all nodded.

Five let himself teleport away, focusing on the mental to-do list he’d set for himself. If he just followed the steps, he didn’t have to think about Klaus. Just gather the pajamas and don’t think about his brother hyperventilating out of fear. Find the first aid kid and don’t think about the cuts and blood.

That line of thinking stopped as soon as Five teleported back to Luther’s room.

Ben was still there and the boys were curled into each other. Klaus wasn’t catatonic anymore, which was a relief. But he was shaking and whimpering, buried into Ben’s chest like a child.

Five supposed they were children, sort of. And that was his fault. His fault they were in this mess. His fault because he couldn’t stop the apocalypse the first time around. So now his siblings were reliving their trauma.

He’d known Vanya had had it bad. He’d read her book and he’d always pitied her as a child. But he’d never considered the others. He’d spent decades wondering about what could have happened after he’d left, but he’d never considered that there had been things going on in the house he hadn’t noticed before he left.

He couldn’t think about it, though. This was a time for logic. This was a time for action. He could do those things.

“Ben,” Five said softly. His brother almost jumped out of his skin, clearly too focused on Klaus to have noticed his appearance. Klaus made no sign that he’d heard however, which sent a sinking feeling into Five’s stomach. “I need to check his wounds. Will you hold him? Keep him calm?”

Ben nodded. Klaus was tucked under his chin, limbs folded away, and eyes scrunched closed.

He approached slowly, cautious about scaring Klaus too badly. He didn’t know what mind-state his brother was in, and his wounds had to be at least cleaned up before he could be left.

Ben moved Klaus gently, so that they could both see the extent of the damage. Klaus didn’t react other than opening his eyes. The swoop of worry hit Five again, but he forced himself to ignore it. _Just go through the checklist_ , he told himself firmly.

He took the wash cloth he’d grabbed first, but when he went to clean the blood away from Klaus, the boy flinched away, whimpering into Ben’s arms. His eyes were glazed over, seeing something very far away. Before Five could say anything, Ben gently took the cloth out of his hands.

Five watched Ben take over, willing to sit back for the moment.

He ran the cloth over Klaus’s cuts and bruises gently, talking to him in a voice so soft and quiet that Five couldn’t hear what he was saying even from his position beside them. Klaus didn’t whimper again, but he didn’t relax either, and his eyes remained glassy and unresponsive. Five couldn’t help but stare, the worry and fear coming back ten-fold.

He really hadn’t protected them. He was double their age, and not only had he not protected them, he’d made this happen. He’d had no idea the decision he’d forced Klaus into making back in the theater.

“What do you think happened?” Ben asked in a whisper and it took a moment for Five to realize the question was directed at him.

“What?”

“He’s so hurt… the ghosts have never hurt him before. I couldn’t even touch him!”

“But you could near the end, right? Before we traveled back?” Five asked, thankful for the logic taking over as his brain searched for an answer. He could focus on questions, focus on answers. “Maybe it was a fear reaction, like in the theater. He didn’t mean to make you corporeal, but his instinct took over. Like a fight or flight thing. He was scared, so his powers took over to protect him. Similar situation, except this time it looks like it did more harm than help.”

“More harm? Look at him!” Ben was staring at him in disbelief.

“I know. It’s quite interesting, actually. I wonder if-”

“Stop! You sound just like Dad,” Ben snapped, his voice suddenly loud against the silence of Luther’s bedroom. Klaus whimpered, eyes darting around the room wildly in search of the threat. Ben ran his hands through Klaus’s curls, trying to sooth him, whispering an apology.

Five took a breath. He hadn’t meant it that way. He didn’t want to be clinical and removed like Hargreeves had been during their training. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, as much to Klaus as to Ben, “I didn’t mean to. I do care about him.”

Ben only nodded and tossed the washcloth to the floor. It was soaked in blood. Now that Five could see Klaus from under the blood, he looked grey, like a corpse. His curls were stuck to his forehead with sweat. A few of the cuts were still bleeding.

“He’s going to need a few stitches,” Five decided, glancing at Ben. “Do you think you can keep him calm while I do it?”

“Yeah… yeah, just be quick.”

There was no need to worry though. Five worked efficiently, trying to keep it as painless as possible. Theoretically he could have teleported to the medical room and found some anesthetic, but he didn’t know enough about it to trust himself, and he wasn’t ready to risk any unknowns with Klaus in the state he was in. Klaus didn’t seem to even notice what Five was doing though. His eyes remained glazed over and occasionally he’d flinch, but Five didn’t know if that was because of the pain or a memory or just because of Five’s presence suddenly too close for comfort.

His injuries were extensive. The more Ben and Five looked, the worse it got. He had claw marks up and down his legs, all sluggishly bleeding into the bed-covers. He had dark bruises in the shape of fingers. He had chunks ripped out as if by fingernails. He even had bite-marks so deep they were still bloody.

Five was at a loss. “I know the dead did this to him, but… it’s hard to believe… I mean, they’re like you right? They’re people.”

“Not all,” Ben whispered. He wasn’t looking at Five, but on Klaus. “I held onto my humanity. Because of Klaus. He made me feel real… human… but sometimes it was hard. It’s like… I don’t know, like a pressure on your head all the time. Like a tidal wave, threatening to wash you away. And I knew if I let it, I wouldn’t be me anymore. That’s what happens when the dead hold on for too long to the real world. They just get washed away. And then these _things_ take over. Just brainless monsters. Animals.”

Ben took a deep, shaky breath. His hands carded through Klaus’s hair rhythmically, as if he had to remind himself that he could do that. He could feel again. Someone else Five had let down when he’d disappeared. He hadn’t been there when Ben had died.

Ben glanced up at him, looking surprised, like he’d forgotten Five was there. Five gave no sign of his feelings and only focused on patching up a particularly bad scratch mark on Klaus’s stomach. It looked as if someone (or something) had tried to claw out Klaus’s insides. The thought made him feel queasy.

“Klaus was like a beacon for them,” Ben said after a moment of silence. “The normal ones showed up a lot of course, but we usually ran into them by accident. But those things… they’d seek him out. Hunt him down. I don’t know what they wanted. They wouldn’t bother with me, but they _really_ liked him. If he was sober enough to see them, they always knew. They’d… I don’t know… howl at him. Scream. It was awful.”

Five kept working for a moment, trying to hide the shaking of his hands. After a moment he could ease his breathing. “I had no idea. I didn’t think about it.”

“No one did.”

It hurt, but it was the truth. No one had given Klaus’s power much thought other than he could see dead people. In Five’s head, when he had thought about it at all, he’d always figured the dead were all like what Ben appeared to be. They were all Casper the friendly ghosts. They were just people.

There was a lot he didn’t know about his siblings.

Silence settled between them again. Five finished up with the last cut, gently covering it with a bandage. Klaus’s breathing had eased, and he was resting against Ben’s chest again, obviously exhausted.

“Hey, Five?” Ben asked.

Five looked up, “Hmmm?”

“What’re we going to do? We can’t let Hargreeves keep locking him up. Klaus was terrified before, but now…”

At first Five didn’t answer. Because he didn’t know. He simply didn’t know.

In his head, the plan had sounded easy enough. He’d thought that he could fix everything. He told himself that if he’d been there for Vanya, if he’d stayed with his family instead of leaving, then things would have been different, and the apocalypse wouldn’t have happened. So, he’d taken them all back to the day he’d disappeared.

They were supposed to just go with the timeline, and let things fall as they may. If they could be there for Vanya, help her control her power, let her be one of them… then that was it. Disaster avoided.

But he hadn’t considered all the other pieces in play. He hadn’t considered the rest of his siblings. How could he? He hadn’t been there.

And he was only beginning to realize what that meant.

“I’m never letting Dad lock him up again. I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love all your comments, thank you so much for all of them! Sorry I haven't had time to respond to them, but I figured you'd all rather me work on the chapter.  
> Sorry for the lateness of this one. Hopefully the next one will be up sooner rather than later.  
> Remember to comment! <3


	6. Vanya does her best

Klaus came back to himself slowly. He grappled for consciousness between staircases and hallways. He reached for Ben’s voice through the haze and seized it like a lifeline. He saw Five, blurry around the edges like a photograph coming into focus. He remembered voices slipping between the moments of rotting graves and warm blankets. He wasn’t sure who was alive and who was dead. Flickers of monsters danced at the corners of his vision.

Then he opened his eyes, and all at once he was in Luther’s bedroom, staring up at the ceiling.

“Klaus?”

He tried to force himself not to flinch, but his body felt tight and weary and he couldn’t quite convince his muscles to comply.

Vanya’s face drifted into view. She looked exhausted and her mouth was pinched in a firm line, like when they had been kids (the first time) and she had been trying very hard not to yell at him for throwing up on her carpet after too much drinking.

“Yeah?” Klaus forced himself to ask, trying very hard to keep his voice casual. The word caught in his throat and came out a low croak.

"You’re awake.”

He didn’t bother dignifying that with a response. He felt far away and scattered. He was a jigsaw puzzle and he couldn’t find all the pieces.

Vanya swallowed hard and if he had the strength, Klaus was sure he would have felt guilty about ignoring her. “Ummm, Five told me to stay with you… the others are in his room. They’ve been arguing for twenty minutes now-”

Klaus tried to force a laugh. “What did I do this time?”

“What do you mean?”

“Obviously I’ve really fucked up-”

“This isn’t your fault Klaus!” Vanya spoke with ferocity, advancing on him with a sudden fire lighting her eyes, the irises clouding over with a threatening shade of white.

Despite himself, Klaus found himself flinching away, cowering into the bed-covers like a child. Regret hit him instantly when she recoiled, wrapping her arms around herself. He could just stare as she composed herself and the colour returned to her eyes.

“So… what did I miss?” he croaked out.

“Ummm… Ben was really angry. He got into an argument with Hargreeves about locking you up. Then him and Luther-”

“He shouldn’t have done that.”

“It doesn’t matter…” She didn’t correct him though. Five had drilled into their heads when they had arrived that they shouldn’t be making too many changes. Klaus knew they had to play by the rules. But considering he was in Luther’s bedroom instead of rotting in a mausoleum, he seemed to have been the only one who had paid attention to that particular conversation.

“Five is going to be pissed that Ben-”

“Five’s pissed at Hargreeves! They all are. Klaus, look at yourself.”

He looked down and for the first time felt the full wave of pain wash over him. There were marks scattered around his body, bruises leaching into the too pale skin. Bandages covered the worst of the damage, but he could still see where crimson was bleeding into the white.

He remembered… flashes of the mausoleum. Like clips of a movie he’d barely paid attention to. They had been… _real_. Physical manifestations.  That had been his fault, probably, unless the rules of the universe were rewriting themselves just to spite him. Somehow that wouldn’t have surprised him either. He’d been attacked. They’d come for him, out of the darkness. He remembered them biting, scratching, clawing, screaming his name with fury and rage. They had been nightmares come alive.

Klaus whimpered, and he wasn’t sure if it was because of the memories or his body suddenly realizing the state it was in

Vanya was by his side in an instant, arms wrapped around his shoulders. She was warm and he leaned into her, grateful for her beating heart under his fingertips. She was alive. He was alive.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” she whispered into his hair.

He could hear the betrayal in her voice no matter how hard she tried to hide it. He knew what she really meant; why hadn’t he said anything _to her_. They were two peas in a pod, after all. Two fucked up peas dealing with a whole lot of fucked up abuse.

“Vanya,” he started to say, but the words caught in the lump building in his throat.

She went to pull away, but he whimpered again, folding in on himself, chasing the warmth. She didn’t move, only pulled a blanket over them gently, running her fingers soothingly through his hair.

“I should have said something when Luther put you in that room,” he told her in a voice so low he could barely hear himself.

“Klaus, don’t, this isn’t the time-”

“I knew what you were going through, and I didn’t do anything to stop it. I didn’t know what to do so I just didn’t make a choice. It’s not fair that I let them do that to you. I’m no better than Dad.”

He was breathing hard, words swallowed in big gulps of air and tears falling him his face. Vanya held him tighter and rocked him gently.

“Klaus, don’t you dare compare yourself to him. Diego was right, Hargreeves is a monster. He’s a terrible human being and he hurt us both and that is not our fault. Understand?”

“Not our fault,” Klaus repeated. She nodded into his hair. They stayed wrapped around each other for a very long time. Klaus had one hand gripped around her arm, terrified of her pulling away and leaving him to the cold and the screaming still echoing around his head. She didn’t pull away though, not even when his breathing levelled out and the tears dried against his cheeks.

“Vanya?” he said after a long silence. “What do we do now? Hargreeves is going to the mausoleum in the morning, and he’s going to be really, _really_ angry when I’m not there. He’s going to know it was you guys.”

“Klaus, I promise you, no one in this house is going to send you back there, no matter what Hargreeves tries to do to us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I ended up having to rewrite this chapter. Originally it was from Vanya's POV but that didn't sound right so I changed it up a lot.  
> Anyway, here it is! A new chapter!
> 
> Thank you so much for all your comments, they're amazing and I love them.


	7. Diego's Turn

Diego felt like a stranger to his own life.

He’d thought he’d had a good handle on what had happened to them during their childhood. It’d been horrible, obviously… He’d seen Vanya’s isolation and Luther’s obsession, and then Five had disappeared and Ben had died, and then they’d all just broken apart.

And then he’d read Vanya’s book, and she’d pretty much summed it up. Yes, there had been training bordering on torture, they had been children forced into becoming soldiers, he’d lived through it all. He’d dealt with the stammer and the anxiety and the manipulation.

He’d come out on the other side whole.

It just hadn’t occurred to him that there might’ve been _more_.

Apparently, there had been a whole lot they’d all been missing. He’d seen Klaus turn away from them and sink deeper into the drugs. He’d just never considered why.

Actually, that was a lie.

He’d assumed Klaus had been weak. Weaker than the rest of them, at least. Because that had been the logical conclusion. His brother hadn’t been able to handle the training and their apathetic father. Diego had been under the assumption that Klaus, in some way, had allowed himself to be broken. He’d been weak.

Diego’s stomach churned with guilt as Ben explained to the rest of their siblings exactly what they’d been ignoring for thirty years. Klaus had been routinely locked in a mausoleum filled with dead bodies. Klaus had been terrified of the spirits that haunted him into his adulthood. Klaus had PTSD from Reginald’s torture. Klaus was…

Broken?

Maybe that wasn’t fair… But Diego couldn’t forget about the way his little brother had curled in on himself, gasping for air. Couldn’t forget his eyes, glazed over in panic and pain. He hadn’t been there for him. Not in this time line, and he hadn’t been there in the first one either.

They were supposed to protect each other, and they hadn’t.

Diego had failed.

“We need a plan,” Five announced, as if this was just a normal day and his hands weren’t covered in Klaus’s blood.

“Yeah,” Ben said, taking a step forward before Diego could even get the words out, “the plan is to never let Reginald near him again.”

Five just shook his head. “That’s a nice thought, but the old man is going to have to retrieve him at some point. Don’t you think he’s going to be a little suspicious when he finds Klaus missing?”

“How can you say that?” Diego asked from his place by the doorway. He was surprised by the tiredness in his own voice. He was exhausted. They were all exhausted. He wanted nothing more but to collapse into his bed and wish away the nights events as a dream. “How can you say that with our _brother_ torn apart by _the dead_ in the next room.”

“Yeah,” Ben said, rounding on Five, “What do you want us to do? Put him back? What do you think will kill him first, the frostbite, or the angry spirits ready to tear him apart?”

If Diego had to put money on which siblings would be arguing during at time of crisis, usually he would’ve bet on himself and Luther. Ben and Five were at the bottom of his list, and not just because one had been dead for over a decade, and the other missing for seventeen years. Ben and Five were the logical ones. The calm ones. They always had been. The idea of Ben picking a fight with anyone was laughable. And yet, there they were, Ben looking just about ready to start throwing punches, and Five so angry his face was turning red.

“Ben,” said Five, slowly, as if talking to a child. His tone made Diego grit his teeth. Beside him, Ben’s hands were closing into fists. “We have to think about this logically. I know we… we messed up. We didn’t know-”

That was the wrong thing to say.

Ben slammed his fists against the desk so hard the wood groaned under the weight. “You promised,” he said through clenched teeth, “You promised we wouldn’t let Hargreeves lock him up again!”

“And I meant it. But we can’t let Hargreeves know we rescued him. We can’t change this timeline too drastically! Ben, listen to me. The more we change the timeline, the more noticeable we’re going to become. The last time that happened our house got shot up and Klaus was kidnapped? You remember that part?”

Ben glared at Five, and from under his shirt Diego saw movement. A subtle slithering under his skin. He was between them in seconds, ready out of habit. “Whatever the hell this is, it’s not helping Klaus.”

“No, Diego,” Ben yelled, “Let him finish. Do I remember what part? The part where our brother got kidnapped or the part where no one came to help him? Because if I’m _remembering_ right, I was the only person who was actually there for him!”

Five opened his mouth, closed it again, opened, closed. It was the first time Diego had ever seen him lost for words. The silence was piercing. Behind Five, Luther and Allison shifted uncomfortably, eyeing each other.

_Great help they are_ , Diego thought ruefully.

But then, Allison took a step forward, carefully, as if afraid she was going to be chased off if she reminded them that she was present. “Look, I don’t want to admit it,” she said, “but maybe Five is right? We’re not ready to fight again so soon. We need to live this life out, like we planned.”

Diego was surprised when Ben surged forward, his fury suddenly pointing away from Five and at Allison. “You’re just saying that so you can find Claire again!”

“Yeah, okay, maybe I want my _daughter_ Ben. But I also want to survive into adulthood.”

“Luther, what do you think?” Five asked.

Diego just shook his head and muttered, under his breath, “Why’re you asking him, he’s obviously going to side with Allison.”

He didn’t have time for petty arguments. He wanted to join Vanya and Klaus. He wanted to make sure his brother was alright. He wanted to keep the ghosts away. He wanted to keep Reginald away. He just wanted everything to be okay again… But maybe it never had been “okay.” Maybe Diego had just been enjoying a blissful ignorance.

“Actually… no.”

Luther was staring down at his shoes, not making eye contact with anyone, even as Allison rounded on him with a shrill, “What?”

“I mean, I don’t agree with you, Allison,” he said slowly. Diego could barely believe the words coming out of Luther’s mouth. “Listen, Five, Allison, I saw what Klaus was like in that mausoleum and it was awful. There’s nothing you can say that’ll make me put him back. And you need me to get that door open. I won’t do it. I had _no_ idea that Dad would ever do something like that to one of us… I swear, if I’d known… I made a mistake with Vanya before. I’m not making that mistake again…” Luther trailed off, eyes fluttering up from the ground. His gaze found Diego’s, and he gave him a small nod. Diego understood.

“So…what do you want to do?” Allison asked in a quiet voice. Diego knew she would never fight Luther. And besides, they had her and Five beat. He knew Vanya would never allow them to put Klaus back in the mausoleum. Not after what she’d been through.

“I have no idea,” Luther admitted, and Diego was just glad their Number One was over giving useless orders.

Diego knew exactly what they should do. “We leave. That’s it. I’m done with this _bullshit_. You think staying with Hargreeves is going to help Vanya? Help any of us? Klaus is near catatonic because he was locked in a crypt with rotting _corpses_. We’re leaving.”

He turned to Five.

He looked small… young… Five seemed to slump under the weight of it all. His eyes were dark, and his skin looked paler than usual.

Five looked at them all, and it seemed to dawn on him that he was being outvoted. “I- I just… I can’t protect you. I can’t protect any of you if we’re noticed. We barely escaped by the skin of our teeth the last time! I can’t protect you, do you understand? They’re going to send a lot worse than Hazel and Cha-Cha if they think we’re actually making a difference. It’s not just me they’re going to be after. I can’t protect you!”

There was silence and it took a moment for Diego to realize that his siblings were waiting for _him,_ not Luther, to talk.

“I… Five-” He stopped. Hazel and Cha-Cha had been bad… They’d shot up the house. They had taken Klaus. They had killed Eudora. Three of them hadn’t been able to stop them, superpowers and all. The idea of going up against more people like them, people who were more than ready for them… that didn’t sit well in Diego’s gut. But neither did leaving Klaus to rot in the mausoleum. They couldn’t leave him again, not even for a second. And he was done with playing Hargreeves’s games. Diego was going to protect his siblings from their father this time around. He wasn’t losing anyone else.

And, if they could fight off Vanya, Cha-Cha, and an army of gunmen _together_ , then they could fight off whatever crazies Five’s ex-employers might throw at them. “We protect each other, Five. It’s what we’ve always done. Like in the theater. If we stick together, we’ll be fine. No ones being sacrificed this time around.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!  
> I had to play around with this chapter a lot because I kept going back on the character arcs I had started for Luther and Five, and I kept losing Diego's voice.  
> I'm still not sure if I'm happy with it, so tell me what you think!  
> <3  
> Thank you all for reading. The support on here and on Tumblr has been amazing!


	8. Sibling Bonding

**Diego**

They were halfway through planning when the screaming started. They’d been talking in only hushed tones and whispers, afraid of Pogo or Hargreeves hearing them. The scream was so loud Diego had to clamp his hands over his ears, flinching against the sound.

But then he realized what it was. _Who_ it was.

He was the first to move, taking off running out the door with Ben right behind him. They raced down the corridor together as fast as they could.

He found Klaus huddled in a corner, sobbing, hands clasped around his ears.

Vanya was beside him. She hovered, hands outstretched as if about to touch him.

“Vanya, what happened?” Diego demanded. She startled, jumping up and rushing over to them. Vaguely, Diego clocked the sound of footsteps behind him and he knew the rest of their siblings had caught up.

“Klaus?” Ben whispered.

Klaus made no move he’d heard either of them. The screaming had lowered into a slow, breathless trickle of, “No, no, leave me alone, no, no.”

“Vanya?” Diego asked again, “What. Happened?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered hoarsely. Tears streamed down her face. She was shaking as she spoke, wringing the corners of her pyjama shirt in her hands, “He seemed fine. He woke up before, and we talked a little. Then he drifted off… and he just started… I don’t know! He was in pain and moving a lot and I think he thought he was trapped or held down or something. I tried to wake him up. And he just started _screaming_.”

Diego looked to Klaus again. He was shivering against the wall, rocking gently back and forth. His head wacked the brick in a gentle rhythm. _Thuck. Thuck. Thuck._

Ben crouched beside him, but every time he reached out and his fingertips brushed Klaus’s skin, the boy would flinch away, whimpering.

Luther’s voice came from somewhere behind them, “Do you think Dad- do you think Hargreeves heard anything?”

There was a moment of silence, of bated breath, as if they expected Hargreeves to hear his name and suddenly come running. When he didn’t appear though Diego let out a long breath. “No, he’s used to screaming in the night,” he said, bitterly. Nightmares weren’t a rare occurrence in the mansion, especially after days of hard training. He remembered nights of his own filled with visions of drowning in a dark tank or his own knives ending up in between his siblings’ ribs. They’d all awoken to screaming in the night…

It was sick that he’d never considered it strange or abnormal. He’d never considered leaving his bed and seeking out whoever was in pain. They’d learnt early on to leave each other alone. A Hargreeves family skill, apparently.

Look where that had gotten them.

“If he starts screaming again-” Luther started. Diego shot him a glare, silencing him. But he’d gotten the words out and the rest of their siblings eyed each other uneasily. If Hargreeves caught them, everything would be over. They wouldn’t be able to escape. Klaus would be locked up in the mausoleum again. Diego didn’t even want to consider his own punishment.

The thing Hargreeves hated more than anything else was disobedience.

“Alright,” Ben said from his position on the floor, “Everyone out. I’ll deal with this.”

At first, they didn’t move, hovering by the doorway, feet shuffling. But then Allison disappeared into the hallway, then Luther, Five, and finally Vanya trailing behind them.

Diego didn’t move.

“Let me help,” he said. He _needed_ to help. If he couldn’t protect Klaus from ghosts, from Hargreeves, from drugs, he could at least do this one thing.

“I don’t have time to argue with you.”

“Then don’t.”

Ben said nothing and only turned back to their brother.

Klaus was almost catatonic. His eyes were unfocused, staring at nothing. His lips moved frantically, but no sound came out other than heaving gasps for air.

“Klaus, it’s me,” Ben said in a miraculously calm voice, “It’s Ben.”

Klaus blinked, his eyes not moving from the spot on the wall he was staring at, but they seemed to focus and clear just a little. His breath hitched, the sound of a sob hitting the back of his throat.

“Yeah, that’s right. I’m here,” Ben continued, “Do you know where you are?”

Klaus shook his head, and despite himself Diego felt relief flood through him because at least he was responding to _something_. Klaus seemed to shrink in on himself though, pressing his back flat against the wall, “No. No. Where- No.”

Diego’s stomach dropped, but Ben just nodded his head. “Okay, that’s okay. We’re at home. In Vanya’s room. I’m going to touch you, okay-”

Ben reached out, fingertips brushing Klaus’s arm.

A scream ripped from Klaus’s throat. A horrible, agonized scream that was painful and raw and sent shivers down Diego’s spine.

“No, please don’t touch me. Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t touch me.”

Ben pulled back as if he’d been burned. He was on his feet in a flash, stumbling away until he was safely beside Diego.

“If he k-keeps going then so-someone’s going to hear,” Diego said.

Ben only blinked at him slowly. “What?”

“Ben, someone’s going to hear him. We have to do something!”

Ben nodded, slowly at first, and then more forcefully as the situation seemed to dawn on him. “I don’t know! I don’t know what to do. He’s never been this bad before.”

“He’s been like this before?” The thought made Diego feel slightly faint for a moment. Was this a regular occurrence for Ben and Klaus? How many times had Klaus had a breakdown on the street? At a party with no one to help him?

Ben ran a trembling hand through his hair. “Okay, umm, usually he needs someone whose alive.”

“You’re alive.”

“Yeah, I am right now. But he might not know that! Diego, you’ve got to calm him down.”

Diego looked to Klaus. Klaus, his brother who he’d let down so many times. Who he’d allowed to be tortured, by both Hazel and Cha-Cha, and now Reginald Hargreeves. Who he’d lost to a war, who he’d lost to drugs years before that.

 “O-o-okay,” Diego whispered. He couldn’t fail him again.

Diego took a step forward, dropping to his knees as he’d seen Ben do. Klaus was shaking, arms wrapped around his knees, eyes staring blankly ahead.

He wasn’t supposed to be like this. Klaus was vibrance and jokes and smiles. Klaus was crazy ideas that might just work and warm hugs whether you wanted them or not. Klaus was energy and life and movement. Klaus was not this… this sobbing child, half out of his mind with fear. Klaus wasn’t this deathly pale. He wasn’t empty eyes. He wasn’t _broken_.

At least… he’d never allowed himself to be seen as broken.

The thought settled uneasily in Diego’s stomach and made him feel nauseous.

“K-Klaus,” he said, feeling the sound catch at the back of his throat. “It’s Diego. Umm, you’re not in the mausoleum, okay?”

And maybe that hadn’t been the best thing to say because Klaus began to whimper, making small sounds in the back of his throat that were a mix between crying and laughing. Diego inched closer, until his fingertips brushed against Klaus’s elbow. Klaus flinched a little, cowering into the wall, but he didn’t scream.

Diego took that as a good sign.

Instead of pulling away, he leaned in closer, wrapping his hand loosely around Klaus’s arm.

“I’m alive. Ben’s alive. You’re okay,” Diego whispered, trying to copy Ben’s tone from earlier.

“Diego?” Klaus whispered. His voice hitched between syllables.

“Y-yeah, it’s me.”

“Everyone’s dead. They’re all dead. They won’t go away.”

“I-I-I-I’m not dead. Klaus we’re alive. M-m-m-me and B-b-b-ben. We’re here. L-l-look.” He moved his hand, slowly, carefully, from Klaus’s arm to wrist. From there he pulled his hand to his chest and laid Klaus’s fingers flat against his heart.

“You feel that? I’m alive, okay? We’re here and we’re not leaving you?”

For the first time Klaus’s eyes flickered. They left the wall and he turned, fully facing Diego. His bloodshot eyes were brimming with tears, but they were present and focused and Diego felt himself almost collapse in relief.

Without waiting another second he threw himself forward, wrapping his arms around Klaus and pulling them together. His brother sobbed, going limp against his chest.

Ben was there too, suddenly pressed up against the two of them, rubbing circles on Klaus’s back.

They sat like that for a long time. Diego let his head rest against the wall, exhaustion making his head swim. Ben was a comforting weight pressed against them. Klaus shivered and sobbed in his lap and Diego was happy to hold him, to know that for the moment everyone was safe.

It was when Klaus stopped crying that Diego came back to himself. He was sure they’d dozed for longer than they’d meant to. Ben was rubbing sleep from his eyes and rubbing his aching muscles from where he’d been scrunched up against Klaus’s back.

“Hey, Klaus?” Diego whispered, running a hand through his brother’s unruly mess of curls. The boy was unnervingly still in his lap.

“Yeah?”

“You, errr… had a nightmare?” Diego asked. The question sounded desperately inadequate for what Klaus had gone through.

Klaus snorted though and relaxed in Diego’s arms. “Yep. I had a nightmare. Those darn things, right?”

“You… errr… wana talk about it?”

“No, not particularly.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe later? That okay”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

“Thanks Diego.”

“Hey, Klaus? You wana know a secret?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re getting the hell out of here.”

* * *

 

**Luther**

Luther had been planning on finding Allison. He needed to explain himself, explain why he hadn’t sided with her against the others. She’d ignored him in the hallway and had purposely walked too fast for him to catch up when Five had sent them off to collect supplies.

So, he was understandably shocked when he turned around to find her lurking in his doorway.

“Hey,” she said with a look that wasn’t exactly a smile but wasn’t exactly a glare either. He supposed he could work with that.

“Listen, Allison-” he began. She put her hand up to stop him.

“I’m not mad… I mean, I was. Obviously… but I had a moment to think. And you were right.”

“I was?” he repeated, dumbly.

“Yeah.” She seemed to hesitate, and then walked into the room, settling on the bed. He sat beside her, their knees grazing each other. It was an automatic thing. Something they’d done as children. Even before anything had happened between them, they’d always been close. She’d always been the sibling he could count on. It’d been them against the world.

Until the world got too hard to handle.

“You didn’t see him, Allison,” he said, slowly. He didn’t want to have this conversation with her. She wasn’t mad at him, wasn’t looking for a fight, but he had to say it. He had to tell her what he’d seen. “Klaus was just… he was covered in blood. He was so scared. He didn’t even know we were there. It was…Terrifying.”

Allison nodded. She wasn’t looking at him, but at the floor.

“I trust you, Luther,” she said. “If you think this is what we should do…”

“This is the only thing we can do.” He’d never felt more sure about anything else in his life. He couldn’t get the image of Klaus out of his head. Klaus, who could take Luther choking him with a smile. Who would always get hit the hardest during training and jump up cracking a joke immediately afterwards.

Klaus who he’d had to carry out of a goddamn mausoleum covered in blood.

“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to sound cruel.”

“You’re just scared?”

Allison’s gaze flickered to his and she smiled just slightly. “Yeah, I’m scared. I’m scared as hell. I’m scared for my daughter. I’m scared she’s not even going to be born. I’m scared she’s going to die at ten years old because our sister loses control of her powers. I’m scared-”

“Hey, hey,” Luther soothed, reaching out to take her hand in his. “I’m scared too. That’s why we’re doing this. I’m tired of being scared. I’m tried of playing his games. Seeing Klaus… I just realized how tired I am of watching him hurt everyone all over again. Dad’s the reason Vanya almost destroyed the world. He’s the reason Klaus is like he is. I mean… he lied to me. To us. For so long. And now we have a chance to stop that all from happening. Don’t you think we should take it?”

“I know. I know you’re right… I just-”

“When this is all over, you’re going to see your daughter again.”

“You promise?”

“Of course. If we can bring one brother back from the dead and the other can escape from an evil time-travel organisation, I think we can manage to rescue one little girl from the timeline.”

Allison’s sniffles became a short laugh and she smiled at Luther, all bright teeth and dimples.

“Thanks Luther.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took so long. I'm struggling with a lot of uni work.  
> I had a whole conversation between Ben and Diego about Diego realizing why Klaus never blamed his siblings for being so harsh to him, but then I ended up deleting it all because it just didn't fit. It was a painful experience! Lol.  
> Anyway here it is. I hope everyone likes it.  
> I must apologize for having to add a bit of Luther/ Allison.  
> I hate writing slash and I don't like their incestuous relationship. However, I thought it was necessary just because I realized I made Allison sound a bit like a bitch in the last chapter and I wanted her to explain herself.  
> Also I wanted to explain a bit more of Luther's side too.  
> Almost done with the fic!!!  
> I added an extra chapter because I realized in my planning that chapter 6 and 7 were actually supposed to be one chapter and I split them up accidentally. So it's ten chapters not nine now.
> 
> Sorry for not replying to many comments! I just figured any time spent replying to comments should be spent writing the chapter because I know which you guys would prefer.  
> As always, please leave comments because I LIVE FOR THEM!!


	9. Allison and Five

**Five**

“What do you mean none of you know how to hot-wire a car?” Five asked, dumbfounded. They’d had a plan. A good plan. Grab some food, clothing, and a few of Hargreeves’ most expensive looking belongings to pawn off. Then get a car, and drive until morning. The rest would come to them, but at least they had a beginning. They had twelve percent of a plan. And twelve percent of a plan was better than no plan at all. Five could work with twelve percent.

Somehow the fact that no one knew how to steal a car hadn’t come up.

They’d picked out one of Hargreeves’ vans that was big enough to fit them all. He had quite the collection of cars, as most people with way too much money did. Diego had even managed to switch the plates around on a few of them so that they’d be less easy to track so soon.

But that didn’t matter if they couldn’t even start the car.

“Diego?” Five asked. Diego shook his head. “Seriously?”

“I was training to be a cop, bro. Why would I know how to do that?”

Five turned to Klaus, the top contender in the family for who would know how to hot-wire a car. The boy was trembling next to Diego though, eyes vacant and roaming the garage like he expected the monsters from his nightmares to start slipping through the walls. And maybe they were.

Five turned to Ben instead. “Ben? You can’t tell me you and Klaus never had to hot-wire a car?”

Ben shrugged apologetically. “Klaus was too high to drive most of the time. There was no point.”

Five couldn’t believe this. He could not believe this! Did none of their family have any actual skills? Oh, you can dead-lift an elephant? You’ve acted in twenty-three movies? Well, that’s great and all but what about anything useful? No, of course not!

Then Luther said, “What about you, Five? You drive.”

Because of course Luther had to contribute. Sometimes he really was a moron. “Yeah I’m standing here asking you all about stealing cars for _fun_. I really enjoy just _chatting_ with you guys. We don’t do it often enough. Really should work on catching up. While I’m here anyone else know how to teleport by any chance?”

Why was he the only family member with a brain?

Silence settled over them as they stood in the darkness of the garage. This was their only plan and it all depended on stealing that van.

Allison was the one to break it. “We’re going to need to get the keys.”

She was right, even if Five didn’t want to admit it. Because that was going to lead to a whole other boatload of problems-

“No. No way.” Diego was glaring furiously at them all. Well, all except Klaus. Klaus, he had a protective arm around as if he could physically fight off all the _invisible intangible_ dead. “It’s almost five in the morning. We got lucky getting out unnoticed the first time around. Mom and Pogo are going to be awake soon.”

They all started talking at once. Luther hissing angrily at Diego, Ben muttering under his breath, Allison trying to shush them frantically, and even Vanya trying to have her voice heard over the chaos. Sometimes Five really missed the apocalypse… Or at least people his own age.

“Okay, okay, shut up.”

They fell silent.

“As the adult of the group,” Five begin, ignoring the chorus of protests coming from the _thirteen-year-olds_. “As the adult of the group,” he said, louder, “and the one who got you all into this mess from the beginning, (again he ignored the next chorus of protests.) I’ll go back in. We need the keys, or we’re never getting out.”

Ben nodded at them violently, as if afraid _now_ was the time they were all going to back out and creep back into bed as if nothing had happened. “And we need to get out.” He glanced at Klaus, who had yet to speak since leaving the house. He had yet to respond to much of anything other than answering a couple soft questions from Diego and Ben before they’d left. Five doubted Klaus knew much about what was going on. He could only hope the psychological damage from the mausoleum would be undone the more distance they put between themselves and their father.

Allison took a step forward. “I’ll come with you. If we run into anyone, I can rumor them long enough for us to get out of there.”

Five nodded hesitantly. He’d have preferred to just teleport in and out, but she was right. If he was seen by any of the adults, it was game over. Allison had never used her power on Hargreeves, as far as he could tell, but that didn’t mean he was impervious. Their father was as much a mortal man as the rest of them…. He hoped….

“Let’s go then.”

* * *

 

**Allison**

The good news was that they knew exactly where Hargreeves (or at least his drivers) kept the car keys.

The bad news was that the cabinet was on the other side of the house.

To get to it they’d have to pass not only Hargreeves’ office but Pogo’s and Mom’s rooms as well. And the sun was rising.

Allison barely allowed herself to breathe as they slipped through the shadows of the house.

They almost made it all the way into the kitchen before they heard footsteps behind them.

Someone was awake.

Without thinking Allison threw open the nearest door and pushed Five inside before quietly pulling the door closed behind them. They held their breaths, bracing against the door. The echo of footsteps came closer and closer and didn’t fade. There was the light sound of humming.

It was Mom… she was probably moving around the kitchen, preparing breakfast for the household. The children would be expected at the dining table soon. Allison didn’t want to think about Hargreeves’ face when he found himself alone for breakfast.

Allison turned and slid down the wall. They were going to be hiding out for a while.

They were in a bedroom… or at least, what had once been a bedroom. Grayed sheets were hung over the furniture and it smelled damp and musty. No one had been in the room for a very long time. They’d be safe for a while at least.

Outside. Mom’s footsteps were clear as day. She’d find their empty beds within the hour. Allison wondered how long it’d be until she told Hargreeves of their disappearance. Would she wait, expecting them to turn up with donut powder around their mouths and tired eyes? Or would she put two and two together and know they’d left her alone with Hargreeves?... again.

“I can get your daughter back.”

The sentence was so unexpected she found herself staring dumbly at Five in confusion.

“Your daughter,” he whispered, “I can probably get her back for you… or at least… you know… get you to… er… do the “deed” with-”

“Wait… what?”

He huffed at her. “That’s why you don’t want to leave, right?” he asked slowly, as if explaining something very simple to a child. “Because you don’t want to lose her? You think if we leave you won’t be able to meet that guy or whatever-”

“Patrick.”

“ _Whatever_. You think you won’t meet _Patrick_ and… make… her.”

She stared at him. Was Five trying to be nice? Was he trying to make her feel better? _Five_? She’d always thought he was disappointed in her somehow. She didn’t even want to consider what he would do with her powers… make a lot of people disappear, probably. She knew he definitely wouldn’t use them for fame or wealth…. He wouldn’t have forced anyone to love him, if he had her powers…

She got the impression that he’d expected more from her. He’d expected better.

Instead of saying all that, she said, “I can’t believe you just said “make” her.” Maybe it was the stress from the night, of the image of baby Claire popping out of an easy-bake oven, but she started giggling and after a moment so did he. “You’re a sixty-year-old man, just say sex,” she said between breathy chuckles she hoped were smothered underneath her hands. The last thing she needed was Mom or Pogo or, god forbid, Hargreeves, opening the door to find her and Five giggling like lunatics.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Five snorted. “I just… I used to do this for a living. Change one thing, you change history. I was good at it. I could probably change it back too, you know? I don’t see why not.”

“Thanks,” she said. And she meant it. She didn’t know if she could believe him. They didn’t even know where they’d be in twenty-four hours or how they were going to feed themselves when the (stolen) money would run out. But he was trying. And maybe he was right… maybe she could convince Patrick to fall in love with her again. The right way, this time.

If she could convince herself to leave Luther once again.

And in a decade that would be important… but at that moment they were thirteen and her brother was hurt and they were running away.

The next time they spoke Five said, “It’s quiet. I think we’re in the clear.”

\---

They had no more run-ins before making it to the cabinet where Hargreeves kept his extravagant collection of car keys.

To call it a cabinet would be to call the opera a high school play. The structure was as tall as Allison had been (would be?) grown up, and so now it towered above both of them. It was made of smooth polished oak and was encrusted in gold ribbons and delicate carvings. It took both of them to heft the door open.

They were met with row upon row of car keys.

“There has to be a hundred here!” Five said as if personally offended by each and every key.

Allison nodded. “At least… Which one is it?”

“You think I know?”

She shrugged. “We’re going to have to just pick one at random.” They really didn’t have the time to be bickering over keys. They could be discovered at any moment.

Five massaged the bridge of his nose, glancing between Allison and the keys. He had that look on his face that clearly said ‘I-am-the-smartest-person-in-this-conversation-and-you-are-light-years-beneath-me-but-I-am-going-to-dumb-this-down-for-you.’

“And what? Parade around in a-” He stopped, glaring at her, mouth opening and closing soundlessly.

“… You don’t know any cars do you?”

“Not from this time period, no! I can tell you what car Hitler drove in the-”

“Yeah, maybe later,” she said, and in one fluid moment tipped half a dozen keys into her skirt. “We’re just going to have to take them all and see what happens. Come on, help me grab some.”

Five didn’t move. At first Allison thought he was just going to argue with her but when she turned around, he was staring behind her, suddenly looking very pale.

She dropped the keys and spun on her heels.

Mom was standing in the middle of the hallway, smiling sweetly at them.

“Allison. Five. What are you doing out of bed so early? Do you want to help me make breakfast?”

Allison glanced at Five. Her rumor powers wouldn’t work on a robot. If they’d met into Pogo, they’d have had a chance. If they’d been found by Hargreeves… well… at least she’d have a chance to settle things peacefully before Five probably tried to murder him. But Mom?

“We’re just…” Allison began, lamely, when Five didn’t answer, “… just about to go back to bed.”

Mom cocked her head to the side. “What are doing with all those keys, silly?” she asked, voice still light and sugary.

Allison gulped. “Umm…”

Five cleared his throat. “Mom, what keys are for the errr…” He faltered. “… big…van? The white one?”

One day Allison was going to teach Five car basics.

Mom stared at them for a second… and then two… three…

“You’re leaving.” It wasn’t a question. Allison and Five exchanged guilty glances.

“Mom-” Allison began.

“Second row from the top. Fifth one from the right.”

Allison blinked. She looked up and then, slowly, slid the key off its hook. “Mom-” she tried to say again, tears filling her eyes. But Mom shook her head.

“Keep each other safe, children. He’ll come after you. But you’re smart. You’re going to be fine. Your father can’t hurt you anymore.”

Allison rushed forward and flung her arms around Mom. She gripped her back tightly.

“I’m sorry we’re leaving you alone with him,” she whispered through tears.

Mom just stroked her hair. There was a weight behind her, and Allison looked down to find Five joining the hug.

Looked like even psychopathic senior citizens had emotions.

“You have to go now, children,” Mom said, finally, pulling away from the hug. “Or he’ll catch you.”

Allison gave Mom one last kiss to the cheek before she and Five took off running.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello!  
> Wow it's been a while.  
> Sorry for the wait but I had to finish school, and writing this was getting in the way of my final assessments.  
> I did really well though! Got all my stuff back.  
> SO last chapter will be uploaded tomorrow at some point after work.  
> I hope you enjoyed this. Please lemme know what you think!


	10. The End

**Klaus**

Everything was going to be fine.

He was not going back to the mausoleum.

Hargreeves was not going to catch them.

He was not going back to the mausoleum.

Stop. Breath. In. Out. Slowly.

Honestly, how did people survive without drugs? Klaus thought his heart was going to rip out of his chest. Who even invented being sober? Who decided _that_ was a good idea?

Oh… right… he did…. God he was stupid.

Ben was sat beside him. He was gripping his hand so tightly, Klaus was pretty sure he was going to start losing circulation in .5 seconds. He had to force himself not to flinch away from the touch. Because Ben was alive. Not dead. Very alive. There were no dead people here. In fact, the world felt eerily quiet.

Except for Five and Allison, they were all sitting in the back of the van. Five had demanded he be the one to drive, and Allison had been elected to sit up front with him in order to rumour any cops if they were pulled over. Because yeah… thirteen-year olds driving tended to catch attention. If they were lucky, they’d make it out of the city without anyone calling the police on a van full of actual _children_.

The rest of them were left to find the most comfortable looking suitcases and hold on for dear life. Although it was uncomfortable, Klaus would take being wedged between two bags in the back of a small van over being locked in the mausoleum any day.

Diego smiled at him from where he was lounging across Allison’s bright pink duffle bag. “We’re almost out,” he whispered to Klaus under his breath.

Klaus did his best to smile back.

They were almost away. They had almost changed history.

Then the car stopped.

Klaus’ stomach dropped. He could see the rest of them tense up. Vanya was the first to move. She leapt up and made her way to the doors.

“Wait.” Someone said… Luther, maybe. But she’d already flung the door open.

Hargreeves was waiting for them. He was eerily calm, face unreadable. “What is this?”

Pogo and Mom stood behind him, and beside them lingered Five and Allison, looking unsure of what they should do. Klaus didn’t even know what they should do. Were they actually going to fight Hargreeves? Or run back into the mansion with their tails between their legs?

He didn’t think any of them had ever considered using their powers against Hargreeves… Well any of them except Klaus. As a child, Klaus had fantasized about his father being able to see the dead like he could. About locking him in the mausoleum so that he’d suffer as Klaus had. Those types of thoughts had comforted him between the nightmares.

He wondered if Luther had ever fantasized about ripping Hargreeves limb from limb… probably not.

From where he was sitting, Klaus could only see Vanya’s back, but he could see her trembling against the dawn light. Diego got up slowly and joined her so that they both stood in the doorway like two guards. They were so small in their thirteen-year-old bodies, Klaus could see Hargreeves’ face towering over them.

Diego was the only one to speak. “We’re leaving.”

“Hmmf,” was the reply, as if Diego had remarked on nothing more interesting than the weather. He shook his head in disappointment. “You will get out of the van. Now.”

No one moved, but neither did they close the doors.

Klaus was more than happy to stay in the darkness of the van, cowering with Ben in the shadows.

_I’m not going back. I’m not going back. I’m not going back. I’m not going back._

Then Allison took a step forward. “I heard a rumour-”

Klaus didn’t see what Hargreeves pulled out of his pocket. He only saw the movement, lightning fast, and then the ear-splitting siren cracked through the air.

It was horrible. Louder than anything he’d heard before. His hands slammed over his ears, but it was too late. The noise was in his brain. It crashed and snarled like a wild thing in his skull. He wouldn’t have been surprised if his ears were bleeding.

Diego and Vanya toppled out of the van and twitched on the ground, their own hands over their ears. Ben’s hand disappeared from his, but Klaus couldn’t turn to check on his brother. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything but convulse on the ground in agony.

A dark shape took up his vision. At first, he thought he was passing out. But then the shape latched onto Klaus’ wrist and yanked him forward. He was dragged across the floor and then onto the gravel. He barely noticed his skin scraping against the rocks. Hargreeves was dragging him by his wrist, which meant one ear was unprotected.

The siren was still ringing.

Klaus was dragged across the lawn. At first, he thought Hargreeves was taking him back to the house, but then he turned left, and Klaus was dragged away from the front door and towards-

The mausoleum!

He fought harder, pulling his arm, digging his toes into the mud. Hargreeves refused to let go, his grip tightening so hard Klaus could feel his skin bruising.

His father was talking, but Klaus could only make out the movement of his lips. He probably wasn’t missing much. He already knew what a disappointment he was.

_I can’t go back. I can’t go back. I can’t go back._

The dead were going to tear him apart. He was going to die in the dark. Alone.

The noise was so loud his head throbbed, his ear drums were fracturing in his head, and there was static filling his brain. He couldn’t think, couldn’t move. There was just pain and the tight grip on his wrist.

It took a moment for Klaus to realize Hargreeves had stopped. His father was standing stock still in the middle of the lawn.

He was looking at the mausoleum door.

The mausoleum door that was trembling against its hinges.

No… not trembling… shaking… violently.

Almost like hundreds of people were slamming their fists against it trying to escape.

 _No, not people_ , Klaus realized. _The dead._

As soon as the words entered his head, it was like the magic word had been spoken.

The door exploded off its hinges and sailed over their heads.

There were bodies piling out of the door, scrabbling on their hands, clambering over each other, clawing at the grass, screaming at the light. Their skin was ripped from their bodies, hair melted like wax against their skulls, skin as white as paper, fingernails black and rotted. Corpses. A lot of corpses.

Nightmares come to life.

Except they didn’t round on Klaus as they had done for years. For his whole life.

Instead every single pair of eyes was transfixed on his father.

The world held still.

And then they pounced.

Hargreeves was ripped away from him in a flurry of bony limbs and rotting flesh.

Klaus dropped to the ground like a stone. He couldn’t lift his head to watch. Instead he buried his face in the grass, hands clamped firmly over his ears. The siren was loud and grating and agonizing but he could still hear the shrieks and howling piercing through.

His vision was tunnelling.

He could see nothing but the wet grass and someone’s feet frantically kicking out as something held them down-

Nope. Nope. Look away.

Then he noticed the little device just a few inches away from him. It must’ve fallen from Hargreeves’ pocket. It was just a small rectangle with a switch on its side. Such a simple little thing. Something their father must’ve designed years ago. Maybe when Vanya’s powers first became out of control. Or even before that. When Luther first lifted his crib into the air with one hand.

He must’ve known this day would come.

With great difficultly, Klaus dragged his body over the grass, wrapped his fingers around the device, and flipped the switch.

The siren ended.

And then, with great relief, Klaus finally lost consciousness.

* * *

 

He awoke slowly and with a vicious headache. His head was on something soft. He was warm. There were vibrations underneath him.

His eyes flickered open.

His head was cradled on Diego’s lap. Someone had placed a blanket over him. They were all in the van.

They were safe.

Ben was staring with worried eyes beside him, but when Klaus’ gaze met his, he smiled.

“You’re awake.”

Klaus winced at the noise.

“Headache?” Ben asked, a small smirk of sympathy on his lips. “Yeah, we all got ‘em.”

“Basted,” Diego added. Klaus grinned up at the floating head that was his brother above him. He didn’t move off his lap. He was probably the most comfortable he’d been in days.

“Klaus…” Ben started. He bit his lip and Klaus had the sudden feeling that he was in trouble. Which was nothing new, of course, it was just his head hurt a lot. “What happened to Hargreeves?”

“What do you mean?” Klaus asked. Or tried to. His whole face felt kind of funny and he couldn’t really hear his own voice, so it sounded more like ‘wha’ooo’m’n?’

“When we found you,” Diego said, “You were just on the grass by yourself. You had the noise thingy… but Hargreeves was gone. What happened?”

Klaus thought for a moment.

What had happened?

“He got what he deserved.”

Ben and Diego both looked at each other. He knew he was going to be questioned later. Luther was going to want to know what had happened, at least. And when reports of a mission billionaire made it to the news… well he was going to have some explaining to do.

But for now his head hurt and he wanted to rest.

And his brothers seemed to understand because they both sat back.

There was nothing but the sound of the van engine and the feeling of miles of road passing them by.

They were free. They were going to change history.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnnddd it's done!!!  
> Thank you to everyone! It took a while but we finally got here.  
> I really hope you liked this story :)

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr is @thesevenumbrellas  
> https://thesevenumbrellas.tumblr.com/


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